Local Timeseries of UV Index and Daily Dose

The local timeseries of the estimated clear-sky UV index and the cloud corrected daily erythemal dose were produced for some European ground stations and cities. So far only Earth Probe TOMS data from late 1996 till 21st of June 2004 has been processed. More data will be added as soon as they become available.

Example product plots

Earth Probe TOMS (July 1996 - June 2004)


Station/City Country Longitude Latitude Altitude
Abisko Sweden 18.82 68.35 385
Andoya Norway 16.00 69.30 380
Angra do Heroismo Portugal -27.22 38.66 74
Belsk Poland 20.78 51.83 180
Bilthoven Netherlands 5.20 52.12 9
Briancon France 6.65 44.90 1310
Camborne Great Britain -5.30 50.20 80
De Bilt Netherlands 5.18 52.10 17
Funchal Portugal -16.89 32.64 58
Garmisch Germany 11.07 47.48 730
Helsinki Finland 24.97 60.17 0
Hohenpeissenberg Germany 11.02 47.80 980
Hradec Kralove Czech Republic 15.83 50.19 285
Ispra Italy 8.63 45.81 214
Izana Spain -16.50 28.49 2367
Jokioinen Finland 23.50 60.81 107
Lampedusa Italy 12.60 35.50 50
Leba Poland 17.53 54.75 2
Legionowo Poland 20.97 52.40 96
Lindenberg Germany 14.12 52.21 127
Lisbon Portugal -9.15 38.77 100
Manchester Great Britain -2.23 53.28 100
Mil.-Airport Tatoi Greece 23.78 38.11 255
Murmansk Russia 33.05 68.97 46
Nea Mihaniona Greece 22.85 40.47 20
Neuherberg Germany 11.58 48.22 493
Norrkoping Sweden 16.15 58.58 43
Oesteraas Norway 10.75 59.92 50
Offenbach Germany 8.65 50.01 124
Paramaribo Surinam -55.21 5.81 35
Penhas Douradas Portugal -7.55 40.58 1380
Potsdam Germany 13.08 52.36 107
Reading Great Britain -0.93 51.45 66
Rome Italy 12.52 41.90 60
Sodankyla Finland 26.63 67.37 179
Sonnblick Austria 12.95 47.05 3106
Tartu Estonia 26.50 58.30 70
Thessaloniki Greece 22.96 40.63 60
Tromso Norway 18.93 69.66 107
Trondheim Norway 10.47 63.43 20
Uccle Belgium 4.36 50.80 105
Venice Italy 12.33 45.43 0
Vienna Austria 16.35 48.23 160
Villeneuve a'Ascq France 3.14 50.61 70
Vindeln Sweden 19.77 64.23 283
Zakopane Poland 19.97 49.30 855
Zugspitze Germany 10.98 47.42 2965

A Grid of Finnish Timeseries of UV Index and Daily Dose

FMI has additionally produced a grid of Finnish timeseries of UV index and daily dose using the Earth Probe TOMS data. The grid covers longitudes from 19.0 to 32.0 and latitudes from 59.5 to 70.5. The longitudinal and latitudinal density of the grid are both 0.5 degrees. The data files have the same format as the local European timeseries. The data files are named according to their longitude and latitude as FL_<longitude>_<latitude>.dat.

Access to the archive of Finnish timeseries

Data Format

The overpass timeseries files are ASCII files that consist of two header lines followed by daily overpass data records that consist of 12 columns. The contents of each column are
  1. Date (YYYY-M-D)
  2. Local solar time at observation time
  3. Latitude
  4. Longitude
  5. Distance from the station (km)
  6. Terrain pressure (atm)
  7. Solar zenith angle at observation time
  8. Satellite zenith angle (0=nadir)
  9. Total ozone column (DU)
  10. Surface albedo
  11. Cloud corrected erythemally weighted daily dose (kJ/m2)
  12. Clear-sky UV index at noon

Production Notes

The overpass observation was selected according to its distance from the station. Furthermore it was required that the quality of the observation was nominal and that the observation was made within 4 hours from local solar noon. Occasionally the UV algorithm was not able to estimate the attenuation of UV by clouds; in these cases the missing value for the daily dose was indicated by "NA". It should be noted that the terrain pressure of the satellite data file is not necessarily in agreement with the altitude of the ground station.

Aapo Tanskanen, November 9th, 2004